More than half of the recipients honored this month are working with emerging technologies in areas of nano, clean, and biotech
The President noted that too few of today's college undergraduates are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics — subjects that he says are critical to the future global competitiveness of the U.S.
From the list provided by the White House, here are the medal honorees working with emerging technologies:
National Medal of Science:
Jacqueline K. Barton, California Institute of Technology, for discovering a new property of the DNA helix.
Shu Chien, University of California, San Diego, for work in cardiovascular physiology and bioengineering.
Rudolf Jaenisch, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for improving understanding of epigenetic regulation of gene expression, the biological mechanisms that affect how genetic information is variably expressed.
Peter J. Stang, University of Utah, for contributions to the development of organic supramolecular chemistry.
National Medal of Technology and Innovation:
Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue University, for his record of innovations in improving the energy efficiency and reducing the cost of gas liquefaction and separation. The innovations have benefited electronic device manufacturing, liquefied gas production and the supply of industrial gases.
B. Jayant Baliga, North Carolina State University, for development and commercialization of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor and other power semiconductor devices extensively used in transportation, lighting, medicine, defense and renewable energy generation systems.
C. Donald Bateman, Honeywell, for developing critical flight-safety sensors now used by aircraft worldwide, including ground proximity warning systems and systems to detect wind shear.
Michael F. Tompsett, TheraManager, for work including the design and development of the first charge-coupled device imagers.
